The Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore: An Illustrated History of Railway Stations in Canada
Support Canada's History in other ways (more)
by Ron Brown
Dundurn Press, 202 pages, $29.99
The Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore both celebrates and mourns railways in Canada. Author Ron Brown, a geographer and writer in Toronto, toasts rail stops across the country that have been saved or remain in use, such as North Toronto, a CPR station on Yonge Street.
The book contains mostly black-and-white photographs of railway stations. Some of them were grandiose, built at a time when railways were big contributors to the country’s economy and stations were social centres. Brown hopes his book “will appeal to anyone who has links with our rail era, or who simply appreciates the value of Canada’s built heritage.”
In the book’s final chapter, he commemorates lost railway stations, including those that disappeared as a result of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s demolition of almost every station between Toronto and the Quebec border.
Brown contends that railway stations have architectural merit, play vital roles in communities, and should be either preserved or recycled. “History is even better served when the station remains beside the tracks and continues to play a ‘station role,’” he writes.
— Danelle Cloutier (Read bio)
Danelle Cloutier is a Red River College student in Winnipeg and recently completed an internship at Canada's History magazine.